Impeachment Forever

For John, BLUF:  Has the President been Impeached, given that the paperwork has not yet been completed?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Could Trump be impeached shortly after he takes office?

Here is the sub-headline:

It’s highly improbable, but everyone from law scholars to political junkies are speculating about it.

From Politico Europe, by Mr Darren Samuelsohn, 17 April 2016.

NB:  The Date is 17 April 2016

Here is the lede plus three

Donald Trump isn’t even the Republican nominee yet.  But his incendiary rhetoric, most notably about killing the families of terrorists and bringing back torture, has critics on the right and the left discussing the most extreme of countermeasures at an unusually early point in the race.

“Impeachment” is already on the lips of pundits, newspaper editorials, constitutional scholars, and even a few members of Congress. From the right, Washington attorney Bruce Fein puts the odds at 50/50 that a President Trump commits impeachable offenses as president.  Liberal Florida Rep. Alan Grayson says Trump’s insistence on building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, if concrete was poured despite Congress’s opposition, could lead down a path toward impeachment.  Even the mainstream Republican head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently tossed out the I-word when discussing the civilian backlash if Trump’s trade war with China led to higher prices on everyday items sold at WalMart and Target.  On his radio show last month, Rush Limbaugh even put a very brisk timeline on it:  “They’ll be talking impeachment on day two, after the first Trump executive order,” he said.

It’s not unusual for controversial presidents to be shadowed by talk of impeachment, once they’ve been in office long enough to make people mad.  But before he’s elected? Before he’s a nominee?

Constitutional experts of all political stripes say it’s surprising for impeachment talk to bubble up this early—but then Trump has been throwing around some surprising ideas for a leading candidate, calling the Geneva Conventions a “problem” and pitching policies that many see as violating international law.  “What he’s stated in my judgment would be clearly impeachable offenses,” said Fein, a former Reagan-era Justice Department official who worked on the Bill Clinton impeachment effort.  Likewise, Yale Law School lecturer and military justice expert Eugene Fidell offered a similar prediction for Trump from the left.  “He’s certainly said things, which if followed through on, would constitute high crimes and misdemeanors,” Fidell said.  And doubtless many of Trump’s foes would like to see him impeached just on principle—the quickest way to broom out a leader who horrifies the inclusive sensibilities of Democrats, and has blown apart the Republican Party he’s nominally part of.

Of course, if you're a follower of Meet the Press Host Chuck Todd you are now asking yourself if this is a real Politico article or if a "European" edition actually exists.  I got this from Mr Tyler Durden, at Zero Hedge, which was part of the chain of fake news on Mr Todd's show this last Sunday.  On the other hand, if you think Mr Todd is an identical twin of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, you might wish to pay attention.

It seems to me that Impeachment wasn't about if, but when.  It wasn't likely when the Republicans controlled the House of Representatives.  And Speaker Nancy Pelosi held off for almost a year, but the Democratic Party Impeachment imperative was strong and finally forced Ms Pelosi's hand.  It is a problem, in my mind, that the hHouse earings were so superficial.

I would not be surprised by another Impeachment effort in 2020.  If the Democratic Party apparatchiks think they might lose the House in 2020 they are going to feel impelled to try again.  Will the House hearings be any more substantial than they were for this effort?

Meanwhile, over at The New Yorker, Writer Adam Gopnik published, on 27 November 2019, Stop Saying That Impeachment Is Political.  His view is TDS.

Regards  —  Cliff